Local Directory with a Twist

In a previous post I asked how online videos would help small businesses. I got a lot of great answers and can now see the light.

But now that light has turned into something brighter which may be a major money maker as well.

Here's the idea.

Create a local directory website....but....

.....EVERY business added to it MUST include a keyword rich article about their business, photos AND a video. Their listing would also include some sort of feedback form that would be emailed directly to the business. This feedback form could be anything depending on the business. Maybe a Quote Request or something like that. You could have it email you as well to keep track of the leads the site is producing. The listing would also provide a link back to the business owner's website.

You then do continual SEO work on it to keep it ranked high for each of the business categories. Plus, as you add more and more businesses, the site should rank high naturally as well with the keyword optimized articles and keyword optimized videos.

You would charge a set amount of money for the setup which included writing the article, taking the photos, producing the video, and building the form. Then you would charge a monthly fee to keep them on the site. You could give them 3 or 4 months free to get started....just build that into the setup fee.

The key is to make the site consistent throughout meaning that EVERY listing needs to have all four of those things mentioned above (article, photos, video and form). This will ensure that the site provides good information to the visitors about the businesses they're looking for as well as keeping the sight on the first page of Google because of the great and continuous content and built in SEO.

So that's the idea.

But....how do you kick start it?

What steps would you take from start to having at least 100 businesses listed?

Here's my thoughts.

1. Build the site using Wordpress
2. Create a media kit explaining what you're doing and how it will benefit businesses.
3. Offer 10 or 20 businesses free setups to get some content on there then charge the monthly fee after the first 3 months.
4. Send out press releases to get some buzz started
5. Start pounding the pavement signing on local businesses
6. Collect feedback or testimonials of current advertisers and create videos out of them.
7. Keep hitting the pavement signing on local businesses.
8. Hire salespeople to pound the pavement for you.

So wadda ya think? Good idea or bad idea?

Mike